Monument in St Lawrence Parish Church Ludlow and another at All Saints Honington.

 

The slightly macabre marble monument to Theophilus Salway b. c 1699 d. 1760, St Lawrence Parish Church, Ludlow. 

Salway was a director of the Bank of England -see -The London Magazine; Or, Gentleman's Monthly Intelligencer, 1741 page 203 and 1752 Volume 21, page 190.

Superb quality carving. 

The question here must be why was the child depicted with the elongated skull, which appears even more exaggerated on the Honington Monument?

Here suggested as probably designed and carved in the workshop of Sir Robert Taylor - 

c.1760. 

In Memory of

THEOPHILUS SALWEY ESQR

who was the eldest Son of EDWARD SALWEY ESQR

a Younger Son of Major RICHARD SALWEY

who in the last Century

sacrifiz’d all and every thing in his Power

in Suppport of publick Liberty and in Opposition to Arbitrary Power

the said THEOPHILUS SALWEY married

MARY the Daughter and Heiress of

ROBERT DENNET of Walthamstow in the County of Essex Esqr.

but left no Issue by her.

Obiit the 28th. of April 1760 Aetat, 61

Pro Rege Saepe Pro Republica Semper

There is a design in a book of drawings of monuments by Taylor in the Taylorian Institute in Oxford (see below)- which suggests that it is perhaps a preliminary design see my web post - 

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2025/06/sir-robert-taylors-designs-for-church.html

The design is more or less repeated with some variations on the monument to Joseph Townsend at All Saints Church Honington, Warwickshire.

The not great photographs of the Honington monument here lifted from - 

 https://www.flickr.com/photos/amthomson/20595901041/in/photostream/

Used here until I can find time to visit myself 

The Honington Monument Joseph Townsend MP (1704 - 1763) of Honington Hall. Warwickshire.

Sir Henry Parker of Honington Hall (built 1668) died in 1713 and was succeeded by his grandson, who in 1737 sold the estate to Joseph Townsend. 

Townsend sat as an MP, and in 1744 married Judith Gore, the co-heiress of John Gore, MP for Grimsby. Following this marriage substantial alterations were made to the fronts and interior of the house. 

The series of busts of Roman emperors on the fronts of the house shown in a drawing by Thomas Robins of 1759 (V and A) were probably added by Townsend.

Formal gardens illustrated in an early 18th-century engraving by Samuel and Nathaniel Buck were removed in favour of a landscape scheme with the advice of Sanderson Miller (1716-80) of Radway Grange, Warwickshire. Honington was one of a group of Warwickshire sites at which Miller advised, including Alscot Park, Arbury Hall, Farnborough Hall and Packington Hall.  The mid-18th-century landscape and the remodelled house are shown in a pair of rococo watercolours of 1759 by Thomas Robins (private collection). 

Joseph Townsend died in 1763, leaving the estate to his son, Gore Townsend, who in turn was succeeded by his son, the Rev Henry Townsend. When the Rev Henry Townsend died in 1873 his nephew, Frederick Townsend, a noted amateur botanist, inherited Honington and lived there until his death in 1905,

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The Robert Taylor Design.

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Of tangential interest - The Parker Monument at Honington.

Some designs of Funeral Monuments by James Gibbs of 1728

 

This post is was created as an aide memoire.

Images from

A Book of Architecture, containing Designs of Buildings and Ornaments. By James Gibbs pub. 1728.

Posted in order to make swift comparisons with the monuments of Henry Cheere many of which were derived from these engravings.

Plate 123.

Plate 124.

The Monuments to Katherine Villiers Lewis at Chalgrove, Oxfordshire and to Anne Wyntle at Merton College Oxford by Henry Cheere.

 

The Monument to Katherine Villiers Lewis (1724 - 13 April 1756).

 Wife of the Rev John Lewis who was from 1755 Dean of Ossory in Ireland.

The Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin, Chalgrove, Oxfordshire.

 1756.

 Daughter of the Rev. George Villiers (1690 - 1748) vicar of Chalgrove he inherited the title of  Earl of Buckingham but never used it.

 They married 7 Nov 1747 at St Margaret's, Westminster.

It is perhaps no coincidence that the family home of the Villiers was at Westminster

 Mar. Lie. Pac. , 26 Oct. 1747 for John Lewis, of Dartford, Kent. Clerk. and Catherine Villiers, of St Margaret's, Westminster, both single and aged above 21.—He was elected to Oxford from St. Peter's College. Westminster, and matriculated from Christ Church 12 June 1734,' 17, as son of John of London. Esq., and was B.A.24 API. M.A. 1740-1.

 He became Rector of Dartford, Kent. ib 1747. but resigned in 1755, and was instituted Dean of Ossory, in Ireland, 24 May in the latter year. He married a second wife, and died 28 June 1783.

 Of tangential interest - the Wall paintings at Chalgrove - this monument obscures part of some very interesting 14th century wall paintings.

 https://www.oxoniensia.org/volumes/2009/oakes.pdf

 https://chalgrovechurch.org/visiting/heritage/

This is one of a small group of mural monuments of similar designs made in the workshop of Henry Cheere. see - the Monument to Dean Thomas Cheyne (d 1760), in Winchester Cathedral, the monument to Anne Wyntle at Merton College Chapel, Oxford, and the monument to Jane Rodney at Old Alresford Hampshire.

see my post - https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2025/06/blog-post.html

The design of these monuments as are many of Cheere's monuments is derived and adapted from an engraving by James Gibbs - from

A Book of Architecture, containing Designs of Buildings and Ornaments. By James Gibbs pub. 1728.

p. 115.

available on line at - https://hdl.handle.net/2027/gri.ark:/13960/t1qg6np0h?urlappend=%3Bseq=1

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The Monument to Anne Wyntle 

1750.

Merton College Chapel.

University of Oxford.

A slightly more restrained version of the design of the monuments above from the workshop of Henry Cheere.

Robert Wyntle was Warden  at Merton College - 1734 - 50.

Anne Wyntle was most likely born in Gloucester, where her brother was born in 1683. She died in August 1746 and was buried in the north transept of the chapel, her life marked by a monument on the west wall, among the most sensitive in the chapel. Her defining characteristic: that she was “the best of sisters” (sorori optimae). 

The registration of her burial was overlooked at the time and was only inserted later into the register, between the entries for Jane Sherwood in 1745 and that of her brother Robert in August 1750 (see below).

...............................

A Book of Architecture, containing Designs of Buildings and Ornaments. By James Gibbs pub. 1728.

p. 115.

........................

Monument to Dean Thomas Cheyne (d 1760).

Winchester Cathedral.

The Monument to Jane Rodney nee Compton. (1730 - 57). Old Alresford, Hampshire.

Two very fine Monuments from the workshop of Henry Cheere at Christchurch Cathedral, Oxford.

 

Bishop George Berkeley (1685 - 1753).

Bishop George Berkeley was an Irish philosopher and Anglican bishop who is best known for his theory of "immaterialism," which argues that only minds and their ideas exist. He criticized the foundations of calculus and proposed a new theory of vision. Berkeley died in Oxford, England, in 1753.

The Monument is inscribed -

GRAVISSIMO PRAESULI GEORGIO EPISCOPO CLONENSI. VIRO Seu Ingennii et Eruditionis laudem Seu Probitatis et Beneficentiae Spectemus, Inter primos omnium artatum numerando, Si Amans partriae. Viroque nominee gloriari potes BERKLEIVM vixiffe. Obiit Annum agens Septuagefimum tertium Natus Anno Chrifti MDCLXXLX ANNA conjux L.M.P

 

Translation -

 MOST REVERED PRELATE GEORGE, BISHOP OF CLON. A MAN Whether we consider his genius and learning, Or his integrity and kindness, To be numbered among the foremost of all men, Was a lover of his country. And a man who was able to take pride in Having lived with BERKELY He died in his sixty-seventh year, Born in the year of Christ 1685. ANNA his wife Placed this stone In memory.

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The Monument to Henry Aldrich (1648 - 1710).

The Portrait Relief within the rondel is inscribed underneath H Cheere Fect.

Inscribed 1732.

Henry Cheere

A relatively early production from the Westminster workshop of Henry Cheere - production commenced in 1728 with the loose partnership of Henry Scheemakers (1700 - 48)

Aldrich was educated at Westminster School under Dr Richard Busby. In 1662, he entered Christ Church, Oxford, and in 1689 was made Dean in succession to the Roman Catholic John Massey, who had fled to the Continent. In 1692, he became Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford until 1695. 

In 1702, he was appointed Rector of Wem in Shropshire, but continued to reside at Oxford, where he died on 14 December 1710. He was buried in Christ Church Cathedral without any memorial, at his own request.

The medallion portrait memorial was erected to his memory in 1732.

The question for me is - Although it is inscribed - did Henry Cheere actually carve this relief?

The design and carving is exceptional.